Albums

Featuring three of Chicago’s biggest hitters – Douglas McCombs, Bill MacKay & Charles Rumback – Black Duck is a dynamic, experimental set of instrumentals that oozes the kind of confidence you would hope for from such a power trio.

‘Hold. Star. Return’ finds David A. Jaycock exploring more fully the world of antique electronica. A fuzzy, off-kilter melodicism pervades much of this weirdly beautiful album, which manages to be constantly aware of the past and yet never sentimental.

With Spirits, The Circling Sun have managed to produce an album which succeeds in paying due respect to the African American greats of jazz whilst simultaneously imbuing their compositions with a passionate South Pacific empathy and insight.

L Con’s “The Isolator” is an adventurous foray into self-interrogation and within the album, there are some very honest, relatable, and rare statements that are, perhaps more than anything, the mark of a great artist.

Produced by his son Tucker Martine and joined by guests that include Peter Buck, Bill Frisell, Laura Veirs, k.d. lang and Karl Blau. Music Man clearly demonstrates that the 81-year-old veteran Nashville-based songwriter Layng Martine Jr can sing them as well as write them.

The true narrative of the Ruen Brothers’ ‘Ten Paces’ is filled with ‘Wanted’ posters, wagon trains, big-city angst, dreams and despair – all given life by these bold songs, tailor-made to seize the airwaves from Scunthorpe’s steel mills to Dakota’s dusty border.

El Tiradito (The Curse of Sinner’s Shrine) marks the next stage of Dean Owens’s hugely atmospheric collaboration with iconic Latin rockers Calexico. With Owens tapping into his inner Morricone, all it needs now is a screenplay.

Damir Imamović’s latest album, The World and all that it Holds, is a beautiful, crystal clear, unpretentious and direct offering. Produced by Joe Boyd and released on Folkways, it is a triumph and delight on so many levels and is performed with the utmost skill and soul.

Merry Hell are a seriously entertaining group, with songs that can strike a chord, uplift and engender feelings of well-being. Let The Music Speak For Itself is a retrospective collection that does so much more than merely ‘speak’; it positively roars.

Migrant Flocks is the third album from Chicago pedal steel player Sam Wagster and percussionist Skyler Rowe and it’s an intriguing and versatile record of real creative endeavour.

Karl Culley returns with ‘Stories Save Our Lives’, a deeply reflective offering, dealing with themes that are both haunting and dark as well as tender and hopeful.

Approaching his 78th birthday this month, Bruce Cockburn returns with ‘O Sun O Moon’, a terrific album, featuring a number of very special guests…possibly one of his best.